Dan Visconti (b. 1982)
Introduction '''Dan Visconti''' was born in '''Chicago Illinois''' and was already playing violin by age 5. He found himself quickly becoming bored as an instrumentalist and having sensitive parents who allowed him to quit lessons, (which he hated), set his path as a composer and music journalist. Being mostly influenced by the popular music of the time, specifically '''The Beatles''' as his entry point into his methodology, that it was daring and experimental while still carrying a melody that the listener could take with them where ever they went. He has had music commissioned by the '''Kronos Quartet, the Berlin Philharmonic Scharoun Ensemble, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Albany Symphony, the Annapolis Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, the New York Youth Symphony, the Gryphon and Triple Helix piano trios, the Corigliano Quartet, the Janaki String Trio, and Volti chamber choir.''' He also lectures about music as well as being a '''Huffpost''' contributor a well as serving as Director of Artistic Programming at '''Chicago’s Fifth House Ensemble''', a concert organization that reaches new audiences with an emphasis on civic outreach, educational programming, and collaborative projects with other artists. Work Analysis As '''Viscontis''' music draws heavily from the American based folk, jazz and bluegrass traditions as well as tin pan alley song writing, his work sounds like '''Aaron Copland''' one second, '''Irving Berlin''' the next, '''Debussy''' wrestling with '''Stravinsky''' while exploring the atonal minimalism of '''La Monte Young''', all within the same piece of music, (i.e '''"Ramshackle Songs for String Quartet"'''). '''"Ramble and Groove"''' is a tour de Force for solo Bassoon that challenges the scope of what the double reed instrument was meant to convey. Its use of wolf tones, over blowing, reed smacks and embouchure distortion between the whimsical sounding theme make for an engaging piece for the audience as the performance of the piece is also very clearly to entertain as well as produce thought without it sounding academic or overly "composed" sounding. An element of improvisation and performance of his pieces are integral to his message of civic engagement to a willing and plugged in audience other than to just other composers and what whom he feels are stodgy academic composer types. Comparisons Using popular music as his inspiration, his compositional style is a unique blend of stylistic language that is at once '''"Coplandesque"''' in its use of classical instrumentation to serve the roots of American music such as Jazz, Tin Pan Alley, Ragtime, Blues and Rock and Roll in a gumbo of references and influences that are at once recognizable and wholly original. His work is presented very unlike the standard stuffy and formal suit and tie variety as well which is as important to what his music conveys as much as the note patterns and chordal invention. [https://www.google.com/search?q=Dan+Visconti&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 "I’m interested in anything that can make going to a concert hall special. For example, a lot of pop and rock musicians employ lighting and amplification, raising the bar so high in terms of stimulating the senses. Classical music really has to catch up and take the advantage of all of those things. Take opera. A lot of people who might otherwise really enjoy it are turned off by the operatic style of singing with vibrato. This style originated because vibrato allows the voice to project more volume in times when no amplification was available. It’s no longer necessary, and now pop singers can sing with wonderful, subtle nuance—they can whisper, sigh. But opera is still stuck where it was in 1600".] Observations That he is able to meld so many seemingly disparate musical styles, discernible within one piece, '''"Lonesome Roads"''', elements of 12 tone music, country fiddle tunes, Indian sounding Ragas, minimalism, and traditional classical composing techniques is somewhat astounding as not one takes precedence over another or is more overbearing than the other. The balance to create an amalgam of these influences without sounding like mud or utterly confusing is kind of miraculous. What is also quite a welcome and fresh approach is that he intrinsically cares that the audience have a good time without pandering to mainstream tastes or "dumbing down" his compostional formats for easier listening. Works Cited http://www.danvisconti.com/static/biography.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/dan-visconti http://www.allmusic.com/artist/dan-visconti-mn0002982572/compositions http://www.wqxr.org/story/266978-dan-viscontis-gloriously-unhurried-road-trip/ https://www.google.com/search?q=Dan+Visconti&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8